Category Archives: Chapter 13: Sting of the Scorpions

A week after the Hammer of the Gods, the party is back at Tyn. Porkins has visited the Ice Barbarian in prison, returning most of the gear taken from their party, including the adamantine ax. The elder Ice Barbarian swears revenge. A mysterious woman with Garek promises that he will be returned to his homeland to secure a peace deal after the defeat of the Ice Barbarian ships at Fort Thunder.

Later, the party meets Garek and the engineer to discuss their rewards, where they are each given 5000gp and a choice of protection scrolls. They are also given a refurbished kitted-out carriage and told that the fast catboat Argyle has been commissioned for their disposal for one year, as they see fit.

The party returns to the Adventurer’s Club, where they sell some of their extra treasure to other parties, before Clinton starts to turn into a wererat- a curse from the portal fight under the city- at the first full moon since the gate incident. The stewards of the Adventurer’s Club try to kill the dire rat but the party manages to ensare and hogtie Clinton, then get him to a priest who is eventually able to cure him. However, the party has been banned from the club for the time being.

The party is summoned by Garek, who is visited by Sir Renton, the Red Knight. Renton explains that his men captured a messenger leaving Est Harbor, who carried an indecypherable elven scipt. He claimed to have been given it by a woman with short red hair and fine lines criss crossing her face, to be delivered to an elf named Radcliffe working for the Duke. Radcliffe claims the message, while in phonetic elvish, is gibberish, but when read aloud Porkins realizes it is actually halfling. The message states that “Lady A” made it as far as Est Harbor with the ship hired from Tyn, and that the town is suffering under reduced supplies due to the sea and land blockade, and will not make it through a harsh winter. She claims to represent a group of Lords, sea captains, and generals who have agreed to order the Vermese army at Est Harbor to stand down if the oligarchy is allowed to leave by cog and sail past the blockage to Vermese territory.

The Duke of Tyn sees this as the only opportunity to save Est Harbor from suffering a scorched earth defeat and agrees to the proposal and asks the part to meet Ashwind at the agreed location in Est Harbor to convey the message.

The party proceeds south in their new carriage disguised as mummers, where they are stopped by Tyn forces loyal to one Sir Eddington, a disfigured war hero thought dead in the Battle of Tyn months ago. Eddington first threatens to confiscate the carriage and horses before his scout, the half elf Meznick, indicates that he knows that the party works for the Duke, and hands over Radcliff’s familiar, Mr Peppers, which he has been keeping as a pet. Eddington notes that Pat’s warhorse belies the true nature of the party and agrees to let them pass to Est Harbor, even creating a diversion by pulling his forces back from the city to make the arrival of the mummers feasible.

At Est Harbor, the party bribes their way into the town, past the Vermese guards. There, they see a town in serious distress, with near empty streets. The only visible people are hungry looking children and elderly, most of the able bodied people having apparently been conscripted or have fled the town. As the snow falls, the music arrives in Est Harbor as the party puts on a show at the Rose and Crown, where they later meet Lady Ashwind. The lady indicates that the party is to meet the next afternoon at the courthouse, where the Vermese leaders will be escorted to the harbor in the underground tunnel network. There, the party must board the cog with them until they pass the blockage, at which point they will be let go and the Vermese army will be told to surrender.

The party sleeps after entertaining and drinking, and then all hell breaks loose. In their sleep, the party is attacked. A young woman stealthily steals the Silver Spear in Pat’s sleep, while two thugs behind her less stealthily stab at Pat in his sleep, waking him up in the process. Simultaneously, a raven knocks at Radcliffe’s window, but when the elf opens it he is struck by an arrow. Just then, someone yells for all to attack, and thugs burst into Porkins and Clinton’s room. Clinton’s stress wakes Cinnamon in the carriage, but someone has blocked the door, trapping her inside.

The Inn is soon discovered to be under assault by enemies the party has faced in the past. Remda- female rogue with a burned face. The demon-masked wizard from the gate incident, among other thugs. Outside, the archer Cherra and the sorcerer Chizlit- with tattooed shaved head and face scarf, assault the party. Thugs set the carriage on fire but Cinnamon is able to get out. A fire elemental is summoned starting a second fire in the Inn.

After a fierce fight, the duelist Sargeant Goodwin joins the battle , along with a Deer skull masked fell druid and the young monk woman who was Lady Ashwind’s traitorous handmaiden. Goodwin declares the town as property of The Scorpions- the name for his group. There is much chaos when Radcliffe opens a smoke bottle, covering the courtyard and temporarily halting the fight, where Cherra perfoms a coup de grace on Cinnamon, killing her. The battle resumes and it is only through luck that the rest of the party survives. As the fires consume the Inn, Pat frees the horses and gets the damaged carriage out of the courtyard. Radcliffe and Porkins retrieve the rest of the party’s belongings and drag some of the enemy bodies outside.

After the battle, as the inn burns furiously, the carriage limps away as the town folk arrive at the chaos. The party has two wounded enemies alive- a thug who surrended and Sargeant Goodwin. The demon masked wizard is dead in the carriage also.

The archer Cherra was killed but left behind with cinnamon. Meanwhile the monk girl, Renda the rogue, and Chezlit seemed to have escaped.